Go and stand upon the banks of the Allegheny in Kittanning or Freeport, Tarentum or New Kensington. Now imagine the river teeming with over a thousand canoes ferrying a French army 3000 strong to take possession of The Point. Such was the scene in the spring of 1748. The first big international war--the Seven Years War--was fought in part for control of the Allegheny and Ohio river valley. And this war was started by a young Lieutenant in the British Army named George Washington when he fired on a French force near present day Uniontown, PA.